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Friday, May 31, 2013

I swear, since I started Instagram-ing everything I completely forget to blog about it.

Sorry about that. So these other baby quilts were made by me over the past month or so. Completely forgot to show these off here.

Another Low volume scrappy Trip (aka trip around the world) quilt made with inside voices bundle 3 (I think) from Amanda at Westwood acres and then a bunch of other prints that I had on hand.
I love the low volume scrappy trip combo - a lot!
Totally channeling my inner-Rita copying (Red Pepper quilts) on the binding.

Then there was this chevron quilt which follows this moda bake shop tute from Jeni (in color order) except that I did it with a jelly roll so everything is exactly half the size of the measurements in the tute.

Fabric is Little Red from Tasha Noel, Riley Blake fabrics

So yeah. Since then both of these babies have been born and quilts gifted. Yaaay!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Met lots of bloggy friends, none of which I apparently took any pictures of. Ummm??? I must've been in a daze at this point.

The whole experience was overwhelming. The phrase "sensory overload" totally comes to mind.

I went there with clear expectations and an agenda. This is where you should commence your hysterical laughter. That pretty much went out the door the second I entered. Umm yeah. That place is overwhelming, an assault of the senses? Not in a bad way, but you have to rest your eyes every now and then - take a break from the constant onslaught of color and texture and all things sewing-related. So i'll just let the pictures do the talking shall I?
Melody Millers fabrics - huge fan of her stuff.
New Echino offerings

Heather Bailey's amazing booth complete with larger than life embroidery wall
The first day I walked into the Free Spirit section, I saw Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Valori Wells, Tula Pink and Erin McMorris all in the Free Spirit section all at the same time. Whoa. Talk about design stars!

Of all that was Free Spirit, Erin McMorris' new line Astrid stole my heart. I love this fabric and can't wait to sew with it.

The always amazing Tula Pink's Booth

Did I mention that Belle is making a comeback?

New Denyse Schmidt

More Beautiful booths over by Michael Miller including the lovely Mo Bedell - she was such a sweetie!

And another Pacific Northwest gal, Violet Craft, who I didn't meet sadly, but her new fabric line Waterfront Park is one to watch out for! So gorgeous. Her booth was fab as well but I stupidly didn't take a picture of it.

And a new fabric to watch out for, Cocca by Kokka.

Some Riley Blake offerings,
Josephine Kimberling - I have a fondness for Xmassy fabrics, and this one struck my fancy.

Doohickey Designs cuteness. Check out those phones? And that large graphic medallion print will be fab as well.

Graphic Kona Booth from Robert Kaufman fabrics.

And while that is by no means all of it, I think I'll end there for today. There are more market photos on my flickr feed if you just can't get enough.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Many months ago my daughter requested a room re-do. It was time to let go of her babyish room and bring it more in line with her tastes.

So she designed this room all by herself. Her Dad and I just did all the manual labor, although she helped there as well. Might as well learn young right?

There was a new floor install (which she picked out and helped install)

New paint

and some stenciling

New furniture that her Dad built (yup, he's handy that way) and new custom mattress courtesy of her uncle (that was fortunate).

New curtains that I sewed and some sparkly pillows made (Yes that was xmas time).

Repurpose an old chair, repaint an old mirror, add a shag rug and you have a reading nook (aka home for the stuffies).

New headboard (made by her Dad) and upholstered (me)

and finally some wall art that she wanted, total PBteen hack job. This sign doesn't come in black in that size - no problem... DIY to the rescue.

Then finally it was all complete! (A mere 6 months later)

She is in heaven and I'm pretty happy with the whole thing myself!

Sometimes that whole DIY and sewing thing really pays off.

Happy Sewing!

ETD a word about sources:
Ribbon Damask Stencil from Royal Design Studio
DIY upholstered headboard tutes at Involving the senses except we used a plywood board and wood frame. I also used a foam alternative called NuFoam which didn't require predrilling holes in the foam because it's more like heavyweight batting and the needle slid right through it.
Chenille Headboard Fabric and Sequin pillow fabrics from Mood. Linens and shag rug from PBTeen. Damask Fabric for Curtains from Michael Miller.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Doctor.Who.Along has officially reached the 200 member mark!
This is huge for our little quilt along.

We never imagined that we would get so much enthusiasm for our Doctor Who blocks. So as a thank-you I am giving away a specially pulled stack of solids and textural prints perfect for the Doctor Who blocks we have planned.

To win this stack all you have to do is comment below.
Tweet this blogpost for an additional entry
Post it on Facebook for an additional entry
Pin it on Pinterest for an additional entry
~ make sure you comment back here for each additional entry. You could get up to 4 chances to win.
Make sure you are not set to no-reply on blogger or I will have a hard time emailing you back if you win.

The Giveaway Will end on June 2nd and i'll announce on the 3rd. International entries welcome.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer
available

Welcome back fellow Whovians!
I know you are all anxious to find out about the 2nd block, but before I get to that I wanted to say how thrilled Soma and I are about the enthusiasm for our little quilt along. We now have close to 200 members and lots of active participation on the group. So a huge shout-out to all our members - and a big Thank-you! We are so thrilled you could join us!

We have gotten some feedback about the blocks now that we are 2 weeks into the QAL. I wanted to let everyone know that although the first block might've been a little tough for some, many of the blocks will be quite easy to do and suitable for beginning paper-piecers. Soma and I really wanted to challenge you guys! So bear with us. There will be easier blocks, but there will also be some challenging blocks for those of you who feel like you are up for it! With 20 blocks, I think we have something for everyone, so don't worry about having enough blocks to make a quilt even if you don't feel like you can do them all - I don't think that's going to be a problem.

Finally I wanted to throw out some general paper piecing tips which should help a bit. But for those of you who can't wait any longer, here are the Block 2 links:

And here it is not quite assembled so you can see how it goes together:

Some handy tips for foundation-piecing:

Foundation paper: First off I wanted to address the medium you are using to paper piece. Likely you are using printer paper to print your designs - logical of course. However, I strongly encourage you to consider a product designed specifically for foundation piecing. I cannot stress this enough. I know that it can be tough to stitch through 4++ layers of fabric and at least as many layers of paper. Here is what I use exclusively: Perfect Piecing - Transparent Quilt Block Foundation Sheets from June Taylor.
I am in no way affiliated with this company, just a happy customer. This stuff is transparent which means that you can see the fabric through it which sure helps when you are trying to place your fabric on the lines. In addition, it's much thinner than printer paper, which means you can stitch through more layers of it with ease and it's more like fabric than paper, so it's easy to punch through. In fact, this stuff is so thin I never even bother to pull it off the back when I'm done, I just leave it on there and it helps to stabilize the block a bit.
There are other products that you could also try, such as newsprint foundation paper which is thinner and therefore also easier to stitch through - it's not transparent though.
Any of these will help with your construction quite a bit.

Fabric placement: start with a much larger piece of fabric than you think you'll need - at least until you have more experience. That way you'll be sure all your fabric covers the lines when you flip it over.

Seam stacking: If you feel like there is just too much fabric/paper to sew through, especially on small pieces where a lot of the seam allowance overlaps, just trim the seam allowance back to 1/8". Be careful not to cut the seam line, but you can certainly trim off more than 1/4" of the excess fabric and all of the paper.

Here's a piece that has a nice angle on it. (This block is part of the cottage block by Kerry of verykerryberry)

See that piece between J1 and J3? There's a pretty good angle there and it can sometimes be difficult to line up those pieces once you flip them over. You don't want to end up short of fabric along the seam allowance when you trim so you end up cutting a huge wad just to avoid that. Right? However, there's a foolproof way to ensure that you have the right fit every time AND not waste fabric.

Lay the right side of the fabric down on the pattern piece so that it fits over the section you need to cover. In this case it's J3. This way you can easily cut a piece of fabric that you know will fit. Now, fold the fabric back, finger pressing along the seam line between J1 and J3. With me so far? Now hold that fabric along the fold so it doesn't come undone. With your other hand, flip over the sewn piece (the piece that has the pattern paper on it).

Hold it up to the light so you can see the seam line through the paper. That seam line is where you will line up the fold line of the fabric you are holding.

Now keep holding that fabric in place and in the light it should look like this.

Now unfold it. It should look like this:

Carefully hold the fabric in place so it doesn't shift from where you have placed it, and flip the whole thing over and sew along the seam line on your machine. When it's done it will look like this:

And when you look at the right side, it'll look like this:

When you trim it will fit perfectly over the section you were trying to cover, J3.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Quilt market is about to happen in Portland. I wasn't going to go, I wasn't. And then, as I knew it would, people started talking about going to quilt market and then of course I wanted to be there as well. So at the 11th hour (almost, 2 weeks ago) I decided I should go. After all, I live a mere 90miles south of Portland.

So I embarked on this crazy sewing spree - because all of a sudden I needed to get ready. If you are going to market and you are a purse designer and a foundation block designer, which I guess I am, you need a new purse right? You can't carry your store bought bag around.

As such, I have resurrected this Urban Hipster pattern. This pattern has a long and troublesome past. I originally designed this purse, around 4 years ago ~ or something like that. I got so many complements on it around town that I decided to write up the pattern. It would've been my first pattern. But then the hard drive crashed and of course it was not backed up so I lost all the pictures I took for the tutorial and after that I was just done with the whole business. Didn't even want to think about it after that.

Fast forward a couple years to quilt market and suddenly I feel the need to resurrect this bag. It's really my go-to bag. I have made countless numbers of these bags and love them to death. They have traveled all over the place with me and my Mom, mother-in-law, and daughter who also each own one. So I think it's finally time to share with all of you. I present, after much delay, the Urban Hipster.

This bag might actually need to be renamed because I think in the interim I may have seen another bag with the same name, but for now it'll stay this way until i think of something better.
The Urban Hipster is a cross body bag with an adjustable strap so you can wear it cross body or shorten it right up to shoulder bag size. It's just big enough to hold your wallet, cell and a few other essentials and small enough to easily fit inside your picnic basket. This bag is designed for the active woman. You can wear it on your bike trip to the park, to the festivals, picnics, you name it - it'll go anywhere. Inspired by the host city of Quilt Market herself, Portland. The pattern needs a few tweaks but I promise it will be out in the next couple of months.

The Hipster has lots of zippy compartments for all your stuff. Easy zip installation, I promise!

And now I'm off to market. It's a dream come true! I am so looking forward to meeting up with all my blogging friends from around the globe, seeing the publishers, manufacturers and fabric celebs. It's going to be overwhelming I'm sure. I will be logging it all on Instagram, so follow me @trilliumdesign there if you want to see the pics.
Happy Sewing my friends!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Welcome fellow Whovians!! Are you ready to get your Doctor on? Soma and I are so excited to finally get this quilt-along underway.

Here we go ladies and gents it's time for Block 1.

Block 1 is the iconic Tardis. Could it be anything else?

This block is all straight-line sewing and while it's not a beginner block, it only differs in that it has a few more pieces. You do need some basic foundation piecing skills for this and all our blocks. Instructions are included along with the pattern pieces.

You can download the pattern instructions hereor through Craftsy. Don't forget to add your finished block photo to the Flickr Doctor.Who.Along photo pool. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Wristlet Pattern

Buy Now $6.99

About Me

You have found the blog of Caroline Press ~ I wear many hats, but this blog is dedicated to sewing (mostly). I firmly believe that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. If you can dream it, you can make it! You only need to know how and that's what this blog is all about! I hope you find these pages an inspiration. I always welcome comments - you can reach me at trilliumdesign1 at g mail dot com.